-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A woman who has been in a vegetative state for nearly 17 years was transferred to a private clinic Tuesday where she is expected to die -- ending what has been a lengthy and controversial legal fight .

A portrait of Eluana Englaro taken in July 2008 in Italy . Englaro has been in a vegetative state for nearly 17 years .

Eluana Englaro suffered irreversible brain damage in a car crash in 1992 , when she was 20 years old . For years , her father has fought to have her feeding tube removed , saying it would be a dignified end to his daughter 's life .

Beppino Englaro says that before the crash , his daughter visited a friend who was in a coma and told him she did n't want the same thing to happen to her should she ever be in the same state .

Euthanasia is illegal in Italy , but patients have the right to refuse treatment . It is on that basis that Englaro argued his daughter should be allowed to die , because she had expressed the wish not to be kept alive while in a coma -- indirectly refusing treatment , he said .

`` We knew Eluana well , and we always thought of her as a champion of freedom , '' her father said in October . `` She had clear ideas about her life and for her , life was about freedom -- not an obligation to live . ''

A series of legal battles finally ended in November , when Italy 's highest court , the Court of Cassation , upheld a lower court ruling allowing Englaro to suspend his daughter 's treatment .

But although Englaro had cleared the last legal hurdle , the court 's decision sparked a new fight to find a hospital or clinic that would take out Eluana 's feeding tube .

Several clinics initially came forward to say they could do it , but the Italian health minister then issued a decree to remind them of their duty of care . Under pressure to adhere to his decree , the clinics backed off .

Finally , a private clinic in the northeastern Italian city of Udine agreed to assist in Eluana 's case .

Monday night , Eluana was transferred from the church-run hospital in Lecco , north of Milan , where she had been kept alive to the Udine clinic .

A handful of protesters tried to block the ambulance carrying Eluana from leaving the clinic , one of them holding a banner reading , `` Only thieves and assassins act at night . ''

The case has been a controversial one in Italy , a heavily Catholic country where the Vatican has great influence .

Last Sunday , Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims that `` euthanasia is a false solution to suffering . '' Tuesday morning , a top Vatican official was quoted in the Italian media saying , `` Stop the killer hands . ''

The Udine clinic says the removal of Eluana 's tube will begin in about three days , and the process of allowing her to die will take about 20 days .

Clinic officials gave police an outline of the specific steps they are going to take with Eluana during that time . The outline adheres to the Cassation Court 's ruling , which required certain steps and conditions once Eluana 's feeding tube is removed .

Among the steps and conditions was a rule that no video or photography may be taken and that only certain people may enter the patient 's room .

@highlight

Eluana Englaro has been in a coma for 17 years after a car crash

@highlight

Englaro was transferred to a private clinic Tuesday where she is expected to die

@highlight

Her father has fought for years to have her feeding tube removed